Clinical and pathological response to pre-operative crizotinib in a patient with ALK-translocated NSCLC

A 65-year-old non-smoker female was diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma clinically staged as IV M1a because of bilateral pulmonary lesions. After a differential response to chemotherapy, further analyses allowed us to re-stage the tumor as a synchronous bilateral local disease with unilateral ALK (Anaplastic lymphoma kinase) rearrangement. Combined treatment with chemotherapy, crizotinib and surgery, with clinical and pathological tumor-response to pre-operative crizotinib, obtained complete tumors remission, and the patient is still disease free after 11 months since the last tumor resection. As far as we know this is the first report of a clinical and pathological regression of an early-stage ALK-rearranged NSCLC treated with neo-adjuvant crizotinib. This report supports further studies to assess activity and efficacy of ALK–inhibitors in neoadjuvant setting.